After living with biliary atresia since birth and anticipating liver failure sometime in the future, Oklahoma Christian University bookstore manager Katie Wright received a liver transplant a month before Christmas.
Biliary atresia, Wright said, is essentially a birth defect, and most people diagnosed need a liver transplant before the age of 10. With children, doctors can use a living donor and take part of the liver for the transplant. Adults, however, need a full liver transplant, and Wright said very few people living with biliary atresia do not have a transplant as a child.
“I always knew this was a possibility in the future,” Wright said. “I’m just lucky that [my liver has] lasted this long, and everything went smoothly and is responding well. My body is agreeing with the liver, and all my numbers look good.”
Wright said she worked at the bookstore for two years when she was an undergraduate student at Oklahoma Christian. In 2014, she returned as assistant manager. When the bookstore switched companies during the spring of 2018, Wright became store manager.
In October, Wright said she noticed something was wrong with her, and she went to the emergency room. The doctors did not see any signs of liver failure, but they did see it was declining. According to Wright, her condition continued to spiral.
“I worked the Saturday of homecoming week, right before I was admitted to the hospital,” Wright said. “[My coworker] Jimmie suggested I go home that day because I wasn’t doing well, and he told me they could handle [the bookstore]. I have no memory of the day after.”
Wright was admitted to the ICU on Nov. 5 and said she was unconscious for much of her stay there. The doctors determined her Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score, which ranks a patient’s degree of sickness and how much they need a liver transplant. According to Wright, the highest they can list someone for offers for an organ is 40.
“Most of the time people are on the waiting list for years,” Wright said. “My MELD score was a 46, so I was at the top of the list and got a lot of offers.”
When she was in critical condition, her doctors gave her about a month before her body would shut down. Within that first month, they were able to find a liver, and her transplant operation took place Nov. 26. Wright said liver failure is something she was somewhat able to mentally prepare for.
“Every year I would go see my doctor, and we would do blood tests and look at those and look at my liver numbers and see how it’s doing and get an ultrasound every so often to make sure it hadn’t enlarged or shrunken,” Wright said. “I wasn’t expecting it to fail so quickly. I expected to be on a list for a while and then get a call saying they have a liver for me, which is what happens most of the time. The fact that I was in the hospital, and [my liver] kind of immediately failed, was jarring.”
Graduate student Jimmie Tucker works with Wright in the bookstore and has known her for around 10 years. Tucker said they studied abroad as Oklahoma Christian students in 2009.
“I found out [Wright was in the ICU] during a class break in one of Dr. Kooi’s classes,” Tucker said. “I went to check on her the following day, but she was unconscious so I really just spoke with her mom and her husband for a couple of hours.”
Since Wright is on short-term disability leave, a floating manager has stepped in while she recovers. Tucker said the temporary store manager, Duncan Lyle, is very valuable to the bookstore while Wright is gone, because he has many years of experience working with Tree of Life. According to Wright, it was difficult missing rental returns and the back to school season.
“We have several schools who started back at the same time, so I haven’t been able to talk to my direct boss on how everything went,” Wright said. “I’m very ingrained in my work, so it’s hard not being there. But I know my team is awesome, and everyone there knows what they’re doing and are taking care of the students and customers. I’m a doer, so it’s hard for me to not be there and see how everything is going.”
The recovery for a liver transplant usually takes around three months, according to Wright, but she said she is recovering very well and much more rapidly than anticipated. She said she anticipates working half days starting sometime in February and returning to full time in March.
Wright said her liver transplant will have only small effects on how she lives now, including making sure her food is fully cooked and keeping her hands clean due to a weaker immune system. She was discharged from INTEGRIS Baptist in downtown Oklahoma City on Dec. 11.
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